DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0269
I 237 )
The Zate William Jennings, Esq*
A remarkable Character,
^This gentleman is said to have been a neighbour and an
acquaintance of Mr. Elwes of penurious memory. Mr0
Jennings died in 1797, and in the 97th year of his age;
leaving behind him property to the amount of nearly one
million sterling. The character of this miser is in some
respects different from that of the former, and although
not quite so extravagant in his penury, he seems to have
exhibited a more depraved mind. Bis father died when
he was on the point of completing a most sumptuous and
magnificent country-seat, which, for the grandeur of its
hall, and the massy elegance of its marble chimney-pieces,
as well as the beauty and extent of its stables and other
offices, is totally unrivalled in that part of the country, and
is excelled in few others. The staircase, however, and one
entire wing of the house, which was to have been princi-
pally devoted to a vast and superb ball-room, were left
totally incomplete ; and notwithstanding the son, when he
attained his majority, found himself possessed, in real and
personal estate, of not less than £200,000, he never added
another stroke to the unfinished structure, which remains
to this moment in precisely the same state in which it was
left on the decease of its more worthy projector. In this
extensive palace, nevertheless, for it scarcely deserves a
meaner appellation, Mr. Jennings resided, when in the
country, to the latest hour of his life—yet not in the
finished and family apartments, but merely in the base-®
inent floor alone, which, by being not less than 10 or 15
feet below the surface of the court, and illuminated by
small and heavy windows, admitted but very seldom the
reviving rays of the sun in any direction. Here, on a
level with most of the .offices of this superb pile of building,
in the midst of his .servants, was his breakfast-room, his
J i dining-
The Zate William Jennings, Esq*
A remarkable Character,
^This gentleman is said to have been a neighbour and an
acquaintance of Mr. Elwes of penurious memory. Mr0
Jennings died in 1797, and in the 97th year of his age;
leaving behind him property to the amount of nearly one
million sterling. The character of this miser is in some
respects different from that of the former, and although
not quite so extravagant in his penury, he seems to have
exhibited a more depraved mind. Bis father died when
he was on the point of completing a most sumptuous and
magnificent country-seat, which, for the grandeur of its
hall, and the massy elegance of its marble chimney-pieces,
as well as the beauty and extent of its stables and other
offices, is totally unrivalled in that part of the country, and
is excelled in few others. The staircase, however, and one
entire wing of the house, which was to have been princi-
pally devoted to a vast and superb ball-room, were left
totally incomplete ; and notwithstanding the son, when he
attained his majority, found himself possessed, in real and
personal estate, of not less than £200,000, he never added
another stroke to the unfinished structure, which remains
to this moment in precisely the same state in which it was
left on the decease of its more worthy projector. In this
extensive palace, nevertheless, for it scarcely deserves a
meaner appellation, Mr. Jennings resided, when in the
country, to the latest hour of his life—yet not in the
finished and family apartments, but merely in the base-®
inent floor alone, which, by being not less than 10 or 15
feet below the surface of the court, and illuminated by
small and heavy windows, admitted but very seldom the
reviving rays of the sun in any direction. Here, on a
level with most of the .offices of this superb pile of building,
in the midst of his .servants, was his breakfast-room, his
J i dining-